Prophet Muhammad Born: A Faith for a Billion Souls
Muhammad was 40 when the first revelation came to him in the cave on Mount Hira — the word iqra, 'recite' or 'read,' repeated three times. He was, by his own account, shaking with fear when he returned to his wife Khadijah, who calmed him and became the first to accept his message. He spent the next 23 years building a religion, a legal system, and a political state. By the time of his death in 632, the Arabian Peninsula had been unified under Islam for the first time in its history. Within a century of his death, Arab armies had reached Spain to the west and the borders of China to the east. He died in Medina, his head in Aisha's lap, after a brief illness. He was approximately 62.
April 26, 570
1456 years ago
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